April 15, 2009

Middle East News: World Press Roundup

An original ATFP translation of an article by Hassan Khader in Al-Ayyam discusses the implications of Hezbollah’s recent announcement of its involvement in Gaza smuggling networks (1); the issue is also discussed in an analysis by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (4). An Israeli government official tells the Associated Press that Israel is ‘unlikely’ to assist with the UN war crimes probe of the Gaza war (2). Egypt detains three Gazan men entering Egypt and finds explosives near the border (3). IPS reports on the thousands of tons of food aid that is not being allowed to enter Gaza (7). Special Mideast Envoy George Mitchell is set to arrive in Israel today (10).

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What’s important is that we resist… T.V. will take care of the rest!

When someone challenges you by throwing down the gauntlet, it is an invitation to confrontation and conflict. And that’s exactly what Hezbollah’s Chairman did when he publicly acknowledged, on live television, the involvement of members of his organization in the arms smuggling network operating between Egypt and Gaza.

Why didn’t Hezbollah ignore the Egyptian accusations and deny any connection with the accused individuals? Why this bold honesty and transparency in threatening the authority of the Egyptian state and its territorial integrity?

'Israel unlikely to assist UN war crimes probe'

Israel is "very unlikely" to cooperate with a UN agency's probe into whether Israel and Hamas committed war crimes in the recent Gaza war, a government official said Wednesday.

Hamas, meanwhile, said it is ready to work with the investigators, to be led by Richard Goldstone, a South African judge who served as chief UN prosecutor of war crimes in Yugoslavia and Rwanda.

International and local human rights groups have said there is strong suspicion both sides violated the rules of war in three weeks of fighting early this year that followed years of cross-border conflict.

Egypt detains Palestinians, finds TNT near Gaza

Egyptian police detained three teenage Palestinian men Wednesday on suspicion of crossing illegally into Egypt and also found explosives near the border with Gaza, security sources said.

Tuesday, Egypt tightened security on its border with Israel to prevent illegal crossings after authorities detained 25 men Egypt said were linked to the Lebanese Shi'ite group Hezbollah and who were plotting attacks in Egypt.

Police detained the three men, aged 16 to 18, in a dawn raid in the town of Sheikh Zweid, near the border with Gaza, the sources said.

Hezbollah Plot Exposes Egypt's Shared Interests With Israel

The discovery of a Hezbollah terrorist network in Egypt and reports of an Iranian plot to assassinate President Hosni Mubarak have left already strained relations between Egypt and Iran in tatters.

The developments have far-reaching implications for the region and for Israel’s conflict with Hamas in Gaza.

Displaced Christians want pope to help them return

Displaced during war decades ago, the Christians of Biram have never given up their dream of returning to this destroyed village in the hills of northern Israel. They still hold Easter rites, weddings and funerals in a stone church, the only building left standing.

Now, they are pinning their hopes on Pope Benedict XVI, who is visiting the Holy Land in May. Biram's former residents and their descendants, some 3,000 Catholics altogether, are asking their spiritual leader to speak for them.

Security forces find bomb lab under mosque

Security forces in Palestine said Tuesday they uncovered an explosives lab hidden under a mosque in Qalqilya.

The Jerusalem Post reported police arrested eight people in connection with the West Bank lab, which was found several days ago.

Two bombs were found in the lab, a police spokesman said, adding that the facility was aimed at destabilizing Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's administration.

A Hamas spokesman in the Gaza Strip said the arrests were politically motivated, the newspaper reported.

MIDEAST: Aid Rots Outside Gaza

Hundreds of thousands of tonnes of aid intended for the Gaza Strip is piling up in cities across Egypt's North Sinai region, despite recent calls from the United Nations to ease aid flow restrictions to the embattled territory in the wake of Operation Cast Lead.

Food, medicine, blankets, infant food and other supplies for Gaza's 1.5 million people, coming from governments and non-governmental agencies around the world, are being stored in warehouses, parking lots, stadiums and on airport runways across Egypt's North Sinai governorate.

Palestinian waging long battle to live in his home

When Fayez Rajabi built a home for his family in the West Bank town of Hebron, he never imagined he would have to fight for more than two years to move into it.

Last December, the 45-year-old car parts dealer thought he might have cleared a major hurdle after the Israeli army evacuated some 250 settlers who had occupied the four-storey building for over a year and a half.

A message Obama can’t ignore

President Barack Obama will receive a message from the Arab world next week when he meets King Abdallah of Jordan in Washington. It will be an important message that the American president and his administration should appreciate because of its timing and content.

Mitchell due to arrive in Israel on second leg of Mideast trip

The United States envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell was due to arrive in Israel Wednesday on the second leg of his Middle East trip.

Mitchell has already met with a number of Arab leaders during the trip in an effort to revive stalled peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

After meeting with Morocco's foreign minister, Taieb Fassi Fihri, Mitchell reiterated his country's commitment to a two-state solution to the conflict, something that Israel's new government has so far refrained from explicitly backing.

Human Tragedy on TV as a Catalyst for Change

Almost every violent national conflict is retained in the public consciousness through an emblematic image which captures the essence of the story. The first Gulf war brought us the pictures of the poor oil-coated cormorants trapped in a slick in the waters of the Persian Gulf. In the second Intifada it was the boy, Mohammed al-Dura, who was caught in the crossfire between Israelis and Palestinians at Netzarim junction and killed in front of a French television camera.

Moratinos: We won't let Netanyahu evade peace process

Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Ángel Moratinos met Tuesday with former Minister Yossi Beilin in Madrid and told him that "Europe will not accept a situation in which the Netanyahu government evades its predecessors' decisions in regards to the peace process."

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